I was walking down the driveway to bring up the garbage bind when I heard a high pitched squeaking coming from the corner of the house near the deck. We keep a couple of mouse traps close to the house on that side: I'd rather kill the vermin before they get in the house. I looked for the trap, expecting to see a live mouse attempting to escape but the trap was empty. I could still hear the squeak; it sounded like a matchbox car with a tight wheel. Then, a flash of red caught the corner of my eye as a male cardinal flew out of the large shrub at the corner of the deck. I looked along his trajectory and found the source of the noise: a perfectly formed nest with three tiny birds in it. They were about an inch and a half from the tips of their wide open beaks to their toes, all three with their mouths wide open, peeping for food. I watched them for a moment, then quietly moved away to get the garbage bin.
Over the next hour or so, I saw both the mother and father cardinal fly into the shrub, feed the babies and exit. There's a window in the house directly above the nest, which was a little less than 5 feet off the ground. I could hear the babies every time they woke, as they squeaked non stop until either parent arrived with food. Then, they'd eat and pass out. I watched the whole thing several times from the window. It was pretty cool.
For the next few days, Jay and I kept an eye on the nest. We were careful not to get too close when we were outside and to be very quiet when watching from the house. Several times when we were sitting out on the deck, we'd see the male (hard to miss) as he tried to be all sneaky and careful, always approaching the nest in a rather sideways manner, as though he were trying hard to keep it secret, despite the racket the kids made whenever they woke up. Many times, we saw the mother and father approach with worms, etc. and then the squeaking would stop and if we peaked after the parents had left, the babies would be passed out in the nest.
This went on until Saturday. That morning, I was backing down the driveway and slowed down to see if I could see them in the nest...
I couldn't.
Because they were standing in the branches, tiny two inch tall birds, staring back at me.
They were still all downy but they were significantly bigger than they'd been the first day I saw them. For the next day, we could still hear them demanding their dinners and the mom and dad still arrived on schedule with food for them but whenever we peaked into the shrub, they were hopping all over and hiding in the branches, rather than sitting in the nest. By Saturday, I watched them begin to flutter between the branches. A couple of times, I watched as one of them (I don't know if it was the same one) hopped out on a branch, right next to the grill. He didn't seem to have any fear of me at all, although I was careful not to get closer than two feet. He just stared at me, as if to say "I know you."
And a week after I first heard them, they were gone.
But I've read that cardinals are quite territorial and they won't have gone far.
Pretty cool.